Dad's Army

There was a character in the first episode called Bracewell, played by John Ringham, who was intended to be another regular character in the series. However, the writers felt that they had too many characters and that he was too similar to Godfrey so axed him from the show. He was only mentioned again once in the following episode.

Source: The Complete A-Z of Dad's Army by Richard Webber, with Jerry Perry and David Croft. Page 34.

The theme song, Who Do You Think You Are Kidding, Mr. Hitler? was the last song professionally performed by Bud Flanagan before he died. One DVD includes an Easter egg with a full-length extended version.

Dad's Army was one of the first TV shows to make the move from black and white to colour.

Ian Lavender once said: "I remember we bought our first colour television set to watch the 3rd series of Dad's Army, which had been recorded in colour."

Lavender also claims to be the first actor to play a character killed by a colour television saying, "I was also the first actor to be killed by a colour TV set on colour TV in Z Cars when a robbery went wrong and the TV set was dropped on me from a great height by Nicholas Jones".

Source

Originally, The Deadly Attachment saw Mainwaring with a grenade down his trousers. However, Arthur Lowe refused, considering it too personal, and the recipient of the device became Clive Dunn as Corporal Jones.

The controller of BBC1 (between 1967 and 1973), Sir Paul Fox, played an instrumental part in the creation of the show's trademark closing title sequence. Both Jimmy Perry and David Croft originally envisaged the characters marching in front of a background of genuine war footage, including Nuremberg rallies. However, Fox felt this too harsh and serious, and overruled them. To this day, both sides stand by their choices.

For Series 9, David Croft directed pre-filmed location scenes, with Bob Spiers taking over in the studio for Episodes 1 to 5. Croft took over again for the final programme.

In the final episode, Never Too Old, Mrs. Fox's Christian name is given as Mildred; however in earlier episodes she is named as Marcia.

In his appearances to the end of Series 5, Harold Bennett's character name is given as Mr. Blewitt. From Series 6 onwards it is spelled Bluett.

Whilst a precise location for Walmington-on-Sea is never given, it is known that the fictional town is set on the south coast, and in the 1971 film version of the series, the local police station is signposted as part of the Kent Constabulary.

The nearby (and equally fictional) town of Eastgate was named after Eastbourne in East Sussex.

Location filming for Dad's Army was almost all completed in Thetford, north Norfolk, near David Croft's country home.

Jimmy Perry based Pike upon himself, having been a member of the Home Guard during World War II, whilst David Croft was an ARP man.

Dad's Army is still loved to this day. A major 2004 nationwide poll to find Britain's Best Sitcom of all time ranked the show at number 4, and Saturday afternoon repeats on BBC Two continue to attract audiences of around 2 million viewers - a figure most new contemporary sitcoms can but dream of.

Mainwaring, Wilson and Pike work at Swallow Bank in the TV series of Dad's Army, but in the film adaptation it is called Martins.